<p>Interesting article by LA Times about dorm rooms being an epitome of throwaway culture. Really fascinating to see what things people leave behind at the end of the year! "A store's worth of detergent, shampoo, books and ramen noodles" etc.</p>
<p>Only registered users allowed to read. You should copy and paste the article.</p>
<p>Yeah good idea.</p>
<p>Why would you leave behind a whole closet of clothes and shoes? There were probably some things that the owner actually liked, or a friend down the hall actually liked. I'm completely guilty of buying more stuff over the course of the year, but I took every last thing home with me last week. Our school has a dorm check-out policy. Each person has to have their side of the room checked to make sure all your belongings are cleared out and to see if there is new damage to the furniture. If you aren't checked out before leaving, you get fined. Some of these schools might try this, so they'll at least be spared the chore of having to search for stuff that people left behind. We had drop off points for Good Will and such for stuff we didn't want to take home, but we couldn't leave anything in the room.</p>
<p>thanks for posting that link. I wasn't aware that the LA times website was only open to registered users. Strange that I could access it, since I'm not registered at all...</p>
<p>Wow, that's great, I'm definitely going to look into that next year at my college.</p>
<p>How can I get some of it?</p>
<p>Also, thanks for posting a link. :)</p>
<p>I definitely had fellow dormers who were practically begging other people to take some of their stuff, they had so much, and didn't want to leg it all home. My friend Kira gave us half the food she had left and her mostly full bottle of detergent. I would never leave clothes though, unless I gave them to someone, or I left them in the salvation army/goodwill box (I'm lacking on suitable clothes as it is!). </p>
<p>And like, why would you just LEAVE a perfectly good mini-fridge and microwave? I sold my fridge for $50! (and it's 2 years old) Some people must be alot richer than I am....</p>
<p>I know! I would've thought that some entrepreneurial students would have sold their leftover items on ebay or something. A mini-fridge, printer, etc. can really add up!</p>
<p>A Boa Constrictor?! That's insane!</p>
<p>Everything I had in my dorm I either stored or took with me. The only things I even trashed were a moldy bath mat and some food.</p>
<p>" Last year, Penn State's "Trash to Treasure" sale at the campus stadium involved more than 66 tons of student cast-offs and garnered more than $50,000 for United Way. Among the items were a mink coat, a silver-plated punch bowl, 33 television sets, 166 window fans and 270 pairs of ski boots."</p>
<p>O.o man... That's a lot of money to just leave behind</p>
<p>I scored a free TV at move out this year.</p>
<p>I've heard west Philly residents saying that lots of Penn students tend to just dump their furniture out on the curb when they move out of their apartment...big pieces like sofas, and a lot of it in perfectly good condition. Never witnessed this myself, but I did have one of the people who came to look at subletting my apartment express great surprise that I was not going to leave all my furniture behind for the next resident. It's all perfectly nice furniture and it's going in my next apartment, and it's going to stay there for several years, thanks very much.</p>
<p>I can understand graduating seniors wanting to leave behind school-related stuff they'll never need again (as opposed to taking it home and throwing it away there), and I don't imagine it'd be very convenient to constantly be carting microwaves and fridges back and forth across the country, but that doesn't mean that you just throw them away. I seriously have a hard time believing people actually leave so much stuff, even though obviously it must be true or there wouldn't be news articles about it. And here I feel wasteful for wanting to throw away a beat-up cheap frying pan and my $40 printer that has stopped wanting to print in color after 4 years of owning it (but black and white still works fine!).</p>